Confirmation that Championship clubs spent more than their counterparts in any European second tier probably surprises no-one.

The fact Burnley lavished a reported £9m on Andre Gray, just over a month after they sent Genk £2.5m in exchange for Jelle Vossen and a few days after paying Karlsruhe £3m for the services of Rouwen Hennings, suggested there are some clubs in the league willing to speculate to accumulate.

Not that Sean Dyche is the only Championship manager splashing the cash. Derby have backed Paul Clement, Middlesbrough haven’t lost their cheque book and Steve Cotterill has been trying to turn Bristol City into big spenders.

Overall more than £100m was spent by Championship clubs in the last window - four times the second highest outlay of the German Bundesliga B (£25.5m).

The figure absolutely dwarfs the £14.6m outlay from Italy’s Serie B, while the £3.65m spent by Liga Adelante and £730,000 coming from Ligue 2 barely registers. English football is awash with money.

Or at least parts of it are. Clubs with relatively recent experiences of the Premier League appear to consider money no obstacle, while those who have been out of it for some time have to be far more frugal.

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Birmingham City are among the division’s cloth cutters and of the teams above them in the table only Cardiff City can claim to have been anything like as modest in their summer outlays.

Brighton, Hull, QPR and Middlesbrough have all paid six-figure fees, which is to say nothing of those immediately below them, Charlton, Burnley, Reading and Fulham have all been extremely active in the transfer market.

Just as it is in most walks of life money is a lot, but it is not everything and if a good manager can coax good performances from his players and engender a healthy team spirit, that can carry a club a long way.

Just two years ago, before they climbed the money tree, Burnley proved just that. Promotion in 2014 cost them just £450,000.

Blues have got the first half of that equation right, it would be hugely impressive if they were to emulate the second part. Impressive but not impossible.